The Journey Within

It is a long acronym for Getting Things Done Virtual Study Group. It does what it says and broadcast their study sessions through podcast. It’s a great way to keep your GTD skills fresh. It’s also great to see how others are struggling with the same problems you are when trying to implement the GTD method. I cannot recommend it highly enough. The facebook group is here. Their website is here. I’ve subscribed to them through iTunes.

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I remember my first day at my very first kung fu class. I have to buy a kung fu top, a pair of kung fu pants, and a kung fu belt to hold up the pants. It’s all in 2 shades of blue. Dark blue for the belt and the collar, light blue for everything else. Luckily, i didn’t have to buy the shoes. We just wore the normal school shoes. I was 10.

Fast forward to today, I just slip on a T shirt, a track bottom, and a pair of flat soles for my Tai Chi class. For my own practice, I don’t even bother with the track bottom and the flat soles. I just go out with the shorts I happen to wear that day, and sometimes go bare-footed.

You might want to consider what to wear when doing Tai ji. But more importantly, you might want to consider what to BUY when doing Tai Ji.

You might want to buy the pair of Addidas shoes, you might want to buy the Nike track bottoms, you might want to get the bag for your sword, you might want to get the sword itself – custom made, no less. You might want to get the sun screen for when you are practising hard under the afternoon sun. You might want to get the mosquito repellent for when you practise at dawn or at dusk.

You might want to get a lot of things, but the main thing to get, is to get how badly you want to learn Tai Chi. You can always buy those things later. I think Charles says it best in his post here:

If you want to buy something, there will be someone willing to sell it to you.

It is as straightforward as that.

So don’t worry about not getting the best stuff, or buying the right stuff. If you want to buy stuff, stuff will find you. If you want to learn stuff, stuff will not help you learn. You have to learn it yourself. Buying is easy, learning is hard. Learn first, you can always buy later.

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I have lost a few articles because of some server problems from my website host. I have been trying to contact them but no reply so far. I guess I will be switching host soon, but not soon enough because there is another half a year to go (I think). So if you know a good reliable host, please let me know.

I will be reposting some old articles, but I did lose one entirely. I have used Wordpress as my backup, but didn’t backup diligently enough to maintain an offline copy. Most of the time, I just write on a simple Text software (to avoid distractions) and delete it immediately once I have published the article. This has given me tremendous power to focus on just writing the article itself, without getting distracted on what pictures to go with it, what font it should be, what links to go with it, facebook, emails etc. I can’t recommend this enough if you want total distraction free writing. Just choose the simplest text editor program. Don’t even bother with Microsoft Word. Notepad on Windows and TextEdit on Mac would do just fine.

However, now I come to a dilemma of not having an offline version. I thought of using my Journal to draft my writings first before posting, but I didn’t want to go through the hassle of setting this up on my journal. I love the simplicity of having nothing else but blank space in front of me while I fill it with words. Editing can come later.

This was one of the major lessons from Nanowrimo. I did not have time to do any editing at all. So I just write. And boy did I write. There are times when I was really tired, and words still came out, although I didn’t recognise what I was writing at all. I was in between the sleep and wake state of mind. This was what I wrote:

One day, I pushed a woman accidentally, but the tribe push trough the love camp and came back to sit and explore. They seem to possess the power of healing. They seem to be able to make sure that none of us is her match, and our main source of fuel is armed in the peoples’ latest receipt.

If you are able to decipher this, let me know.

For Nanowrimo, because I was writing everywhere (physically), I chose Google Document as my platform. You can choose to work offline for Google Docs as well if you have Google Gears installed. You can also “Hide Controls” which gives you a bigger screen estate as you write, the blank canvas that I was talking about.

Coming back to how to write on a reliable platform, I have gone back to using my Journal program. That is backed up on a weekly basis. At least now there is a version which is not linked or synchronised with any other platform. My dumping project has to do with technology as well, and I will be hunting for more stress free writing. I could always pick up a pen and paper. Hmmm… that’s a thought.

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Taking a cue from wujimon, I’ve created a fan page on facebook as well. For those more active on facebook, please do join in by clicking here.

p/s: thanks wujimon!

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Would you be seen wearing this around town? I like the concept. I’ve been trying out Nike Free shoes for running the chi running way. I haven’t tried this. It seems like the closest thing to bare feet by wearing shoes. There’s a long review here by Tim. I’m definitely tempted.

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I don’t know why, but I just love this bag. Found out about it when Sharon went to Manchester. Anyone there en-route to Singapore?

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I’ve been using this for a while now, but now that it’s much improved, I’ll just like to drop a note here to say that this blog looks good on iPhone as well! Check out the screen shot below.

And if you click on one of the post, you’ll get this.

You can play around with the menu above, which will bring you to the pages you have, or access RSS and email functions. You can also search the blog using the search button above. Categories is there as well if you like. Now, just waiting for tags…

Thanks to the WP plugin, brought to you by the folks from WPtouch!

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It started with a glance. Then I said to myself, “nah, it’ll never be as good as my Treo”. And then, it comes. First, I started noticing it more and more. Then, people start to show me how it works. I saw their fingers, gliding along the smooth skin, and then, it comes alive! To believe that such a small package can turn you on. Playing it with 2 fingers brought greater joy. It became bigger and smaller at will. And when it turns, it becomes longer and wider.

After a while, I just couldn’t stand it, and finally bought myself an iPhone.

You don’t actually ever own an iPhone. It owns you. After a while, you feel like you’re lost without it. You will play with it any chance you have. Stroke it, flip it, turn it, listen to it, watch it… If someone is watching, you’ll sneakily put it back into your pocket, only to flip it out again the next chance you get, which is most likely 2 seconds later.

3 months on, I’m still playing with it. I’ve started to accessorise it. Got a nice coat for it. It’s even got a sweat proof necklace that’s doubling up as a headphone. I’m still filling it up with things that I can exercise my fingers with. It’s a clinger I tell you… a clinger!

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Before I even contemplate whether this is possible, this is a very famous theory in Tai Ji, especially in push hands. The proverbial “4 ounces move 1000 pounds” (四两拨千斤) is so pervasive in the Tai Ji world, and yet, I’ve only started to understand the power of this in the “real” world – the world of finance and economics.

I’ve never thought of debt as a good thing. Owing someone anything is bad, or so the teaching goes. So, throughout my life, I’ve been avoiding the possibility of debt. Yet, we go into debt all the time, the credit cards, the car loan, the mortgage, the favour to someone. If 4 ounces can move 1000 pounds, why not use the little money we have to leverage the big money out there?

That is what Robert Kiyosaki is saying in Retire Young, Retire Rich. I have to say, I’m still feeling uneasy on this topic. I’ve never thought that I could be going into debt, and yet if the Tai Ji theory has been useful for different situations in my life, why can’t I accept this theory of leveraging in my personal finance as well? The companies do it. Companies issue I.O.U.s so that they can leverage on other people’s money to grow their business. The government does the same thing. They too issue I.O.U.s so that they can put those money into other uses, like building roads and bridges.

The question is then “why not” instead of “why”.

I don’t like debt. I’m now being challenged as to why I don’t like debt. The more I think of it, there’s no strong reason why I don’t like debt. It’s a choice of not wanting to be in debt. If I were to save and save from my income, I may be able to retire at some point, but I won’t be able to retire early. Debt allows me to make early retirement possible. It’s not a certainty, but it’s more possible if managed correctly.

So if using a bit of debt can allow me to retire early, why resist it? The power of leveraging is more pervasive than I thought. Have you used the power of leveraging lately?

p/s: found an interesting article on moving 1000 pounds with 4 ounces. Do read.

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I’ve recently stumbled across another GTD flavoured website – www.Gtdagenda.com. I’ve been testing it and it looks really promising. I’m still not using it fully because it hasn’t met my ubiquitous criteria, i.e. I can’t use it offline on my iPhone. Having said that, I like a few things about it:

1. The goals can be clearly seen on top.
2. It’s got a calendar at the side
3. Your contexts and projects can be seen on the same page
4. Love the checklists, especially useful for regular tasks

It even feeds into iCal if you’re a mac user. I’m still a PC user, but am awaiting the day I can be a Mac user…

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